Property (β) and uniform quotient maps

In 1999, Bates, Johnson, Lindenstrauss, Preiss and Schechtman asked whether a Banach space that is a uniform quotient of $\ell_p$, $1 < p \neq 2 < \infty$, must be isomorphic to a linear quotient of $\ell_p$. We apply the geometric property $(\beta)$ of Rolewicz to the study of uniform and Lipschitz quotient maps, and answer the above question positively for the case $1<p<2$. We also give a necessary condition for a Banach space to have $c_0$ as a uniform quotient.